Surgical staples to close incisions or wounds in body tissue are well known in the art, as are surgical stapling apparatus for applying the staples, for example, see U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,014,492, 4,043,504, 4,265,226, 4,375,866, 4,399,810 and 4,407,286.
The surgical staples have a U-shaped configuration with an elongated or broad base portion, relatively square or slightly curved corners and two relatively shorter legs perpendicular to the base connected thereto at the corners and terminating at the other end in a sharpened, skin-piercing point. The staples are typically applied by a stapling apparatus wherein a group of same are held in the apparatus and advanced toward an anvil by a staple pusher having an end with a generally U-shaped recess. The base of the U-shaped recess in the staple pusher is broader than the anvil, but not as broad as the base of the U-shaped staple. When the staple reaches the anvil, the staple pusher causes the staple to bend or be deformed around the anvil into an open-sided, substantially O-shaped configuration by bending the staple at two points along the elongated base portion. This procedure can be referred to as forming the staple. As this is taking place the sharpened points of the staple enter the tissue on opposite sides of the incision or wound and draw the tissue together. When the staple has been fully formed the staple pusher is retracted and the stapler is removed by sliding the anvil out from within the staple. The staple remains within the tissue to hold the tissue together during healing and is removed after healing by a staple remover.
It is desirable to provide improved surgical staple configurations. For example, surgical staples are formed by bending thin wire. Bending the wire to form the aforesaid relatively square corners causes a slight bulging which causes undesirable non-parallel stacking in the staple apparatus. Also, it is desirable to insure square bending and twist elimination in the staple forming procedure. In addition, it is highly desirable to provide a sharper skin-piercing point to reduce skin trauma. Further, it is desirable to promote ease of formed staple removal.
Accordingly, it is a principal object of the present invention to provide improved surgical staple configurations.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide improved surgical staple configurations which achieve significant advantages and overcome the deficiencies of staples known heretofore.
Further objects and advantages of the present invention will appear from the present specification.